Organized Anarchists?

BY ELI MILCHMAN
Staff Writer

"HITLER WOULD VOTE NEWSOM FOR ULTIMATE ASSHOLE" reads a sticker on the door leading to a small, smelly room nestled in the bowels of City College's Student Union. It houses two worn-out couches, a couple of super-size banners and a small collection of controversial books. The room is called "The Anarchist's Library."

JIM GESSNER / GUARDSMAN

Chris Kendrick, an administration of justice student, and about 10 other students started The Anarchist's Library at City College in fall 2002 and set about collecting books from alternative publishers like the AK Press.

"People were hungry for information. Everyone wanted to read Noam Chomsky," Kendrick said. "There was a need, so we provided [the students] with the needed information,"

The library carries titles such as "The Handbook of Non-Violence" by Robert Seeley and "Tales From the Clit - A Female Experience of Pornography" edited by Cherie Matrix, alongside classics like "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera.

"You probably wouldn't find most of these at Barnes & Noble. They don't have anarchist sections," said Tony Foley, a 22-year-old philosophy/religious studies

student who categorized the books as "underground knowledge."

Responses vary when City College students and staff are asked what they think of anarchy.

"It's not necessarily negative... We're all probably anarchists at some level," said Andrea Niosi, a librarian at the Rosenberg Library.

JEREMY TANNER / GUARDSMAN

Vita Páramo, a film student, said she "never really hears anything good about [anarchists]. They're people that have dropped what they were raised with."

"I know what people think when they hear 'anarchist'... somebody who listens to punk music, wants total chaos and is against any forms of organization," Kendrick said. "That misconception is the result of the media portrayal of anarchists."

To Kendrick, anarchy is "a way of creating small-scale organization within the community." He believes people are best off when left to their own devices and that government's authority should be as limited as possible. Even though he believes government is inherently corrupt, he sees merit in the socialist tenet: "Each according to ability, each according to need."

Confrontation often plays a part in the group's activities, a fact can lead to grave consequences.

Kendrick said he attended an anti-globalization protest in Genoa, Italy, where he witnessed an activist get shot and run over by the police. He also said he suffered a broken arm and a bruised leg in the skirmish.

The experience taught Kendrick that street tactics are not always effective as means to express dissent, particularly in the United States where the civic community is relatively passive. He does not, however, completely reject using violence.

"You need large numbers if you're going to fight the police," he said. "Before hitting the streets, you need to start working within the community and come up with strategies."

These strategies usually involve public denouncement of authority. With 'direct action' as their unspoken battle cry, members have been involved in several demonstrations throughout San Francisco, inclu ding last year's anti-war protests, in which Kendrick said they "shut down the entire 280 freeway with just six people."

The anarchists have locked horns with military recruiters on campus, and, according to Kendrick, have managed to push a recruitment office out of its location on Ocean Avenue.

"The message was that not only do we not want [recruiters] on campus, but we don't want them in our neighborhood," he said.

Kendrick's dislike of military recruiters is put into context when he reveals that both his father and uncle were Vietnam veterans. His uncle died in a Veteran's Hospital from injuries sustained in a car accident. "They refused to treat him," Kendrick said.

Although Kendrick receives financial aid for being a veteran's dependent, he feels the recruiters make promises and then don't deliver. "I have great respect for GIs... I have no respect for the warmongers that send them off into the killing fields."

Sometimes the anarchists' actions leave other City College students unhappy.

In fall 2003, the anarchists used a bullhorn to make their views of corporations known to a group of corporate vendors (mostly banks) in Ram Plaza.

"Some of the banks were singled out," said Skip Fotch, associate dean of student activities. "The banks felt that [the action] wasn't in a form that was conducive to doing business, so they stopped coming."

The corporate vendors were being charged $575 per week, and their leaving caused an estimated $11,000 loss in revenue, or 58 percent of the Associated Student's total budget according to Andresha Oson, AS vice-president of finance.

"It turned out to be a bad idea," Kendrick said. "We decided to go through Inter Club Council in the future."

As a gesture, the Anarchist's Library returned $600 to the ICC of "base allocation," two semesters worth of the money given to clubs each semester.

The AS and the anarchists are hoping to replace the lost funding with an on-campus flea market.

While Kendrick formerly opposed accepting money from City College as a statement against corporations, he now hopes that the school will increase the club's funding for next semester so that they can bring in more guest speakers and maintain the library.

They are also trying to get the school to accredit a class on anarchism that is being taught by Barry Pateman, associate editor of the Emma Goldman Project at the University of California at Berkeley. The Anarchist's Library want to reach as many people as possible over the next semester.

"Until our numbers are grown," Kendrick said, "until more people realize that 'direct action' is a good thing, we can't expect much."